Sinclair Community College Culinary Arts Instructor Michelle Bridges has received the Chef of the Year through the Dayton chapter of the American Culinary Federation.<\/p>\n
Bridges, an executive chef and alumna of Sinclair, said, \u201cI\u2019ve always really loved to cook, even as a little girl. I was always the one who had to have a step stool pulled up to the counter so I could make my own sandwich. I\u2019ve always had a real passion for [cooking]. My family is a tremendous line of cooks, not professionally. We always did home cooking, we never had convenient food or boxed food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridges did not start her career in the culinary arts field, but rather in the corporate world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a career changer. I have my MBA through Wright State University in marketing and I\u2019ve worked corporate retail for a lot of years, starting at Elder Beerman\u2019s and working for the Limited in Columbus,\u201d she said. \u201cI was about 32 years old when I found myself in a situation where I had just changed positions and we were going through yet another lay-off series, and it wasn\u2019t fulfilling for me anymore. I actually decided to exit from the business and pursue my true passion \u2014 which was cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n
She then sought out an associate\u2019s degree in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management at Sinclair and graduated in 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say the least, I can identify with those students who are right out of high school, or if they\u2019re going after their second career,\u201d she said. \u201c[I\u2019ve] been in both places.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridges said she has a broad range of experience in the culinary arts field, including bakeries, quick services, fine dining, pastry making and business operations.<\/p>\n
After being in the business for five years, she earned the title of executive chef and now has her own kitchen and crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cI helped open a business in eight weeks and I probably used every ounce of education and experience that I had learned through Sinclair and going through that, I think, was very satisfying for me,\u201d Bridges said.<\/p>\n
She said it takes hard work, dedication and keeping up with industry trends to be successful in the culinary arts field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one great thing about being in this particular industry is there\u2019s always something to learn, no matter how long you\u2019ve been in the business,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cYou never know it all, you\u2019re never an expert in everything and for me, that\u2019s very inviting; that I can always study and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she enjoys getting to know her students and figuring out where their dreams lie in order to better train and prepare them for the culinary arts field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to take the experiences that I have and the lessons that I learned and directly pass that on to students,\u201d she said. \u201cJust inspire them to reach for their goals and to never quit, because I did, kind of, the unthinkable, stepping away from a corporate position. It can be done\u2026 It is possible. There are certain sacrifices that you have to make in order to achieve that, but if you\u2019re willing to do that, the rewards are there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridges has recently became a certified executive pastry chef.<\/p>\n
She said her love for pastry making stemmed from a family member who had the same passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to keep ourselves very sharp, no pun intended,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s not like we can be away from it for years and years. You\u2019ve got to keep practicing, you\u2019ve got to keep studying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinclair Community College Culinary Arts Instructor Michelle Bridges has received the Chef of the Year through the Dayton chapter of the American Culinary Federation. Bridges, an executive chef and alumna of Sinclair, said, \u201cI\u2019ve always really loved to cook, even as a little girl. I was always the one who had to have a step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2or","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9204,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203\/revisions\/9204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}